Effects of consumer goals on attribute weighting,overall satisfaction,and product usage

With the use of field data from a live theater company, this article demonstrates that customers' goal orientation affects not only what information is used in assessing overall satisfaction, but also downstream measures of level of satisfaction and product usage. The study segmented the customers into four groups based on their goal orientations for the established arts goals of cultural enrichment and relaxation, finding that the different groups weigh the attributes of the service differentially in determining overall satisfaction based on each attribute's ability to fulfill their goals. Furthermore, customers whose goals match the organization's orientation give the product a higher evaluation and utilize it more often. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.